The Porsche 959 Earns the Top Spot In AutoGuide’s “Top 10 Best European Sports Cars of the 80s”

Sure, the 80s might be known for their questionable fashion (hello, sequins and shoulder pads!), massive hairstyles, and synth-based tunes, but they were also the dawn of a paradigm shift in automotive performance thinking. The 1980s were a decade of turbochargers, all-wheel drive, and on-board computers.

At the forefront of this shift were the Europeans; nothing was off limits in their sports cars. Everything from where the engine was placed and how many cylinders there were to which wheels were driven was experimented with. Each European automotive manufacturer had its own idea about which factors would lead to the ultimate performance. At Porsche Riverside, we’re excited to share that AutoGuide.com not only included the Porsche 959 as one of the “Top 10 Best European Sports Cars of the 80s,” but also gave it the top spot!

The Porsche 959 Set the Bar for Sports Cars in the 80s

AutoGuide.com chose just 10 models from a list of dozens to decide which 80s sports cars were the best, and the Porsche 959 came out on top! Featuring a 2.85-liter six-cylinder engine, the Porsche 959 cranked out 444 horsepower of white-knuckle thrills. At a time when sports cars were reaching adhesion limits of how much power they could put on the rear wheels, Porsche introduced an advanced all-wheel drive system–making it one of the first high-performance vehicles with all-wheel drive. It proved that powering all four wheels as opposed to just the rear ones produced an increased performance in track-oriented sports cars.

The Porsche 959 was manufactured between 1986 and 1989, and was known as the world’s fastest street-legal production car. During its production, it was celebrated as the most technologically advanced sports car ever built.

To learn more about AutoGuide.com’s list of the “Top 10 Best European Sports Cars of the 80s” or about the Porsche 959, contact Porsche Riverside at (866) 387-0766.